Father Bill’s & MainSpring Receives $10,000 Grant

From Father Bill’s & MainSpring: Father Bill’s & MainSpring (FBMS), an organization dedicated to ending homelessness in Southern Massachusetts, today announced it has received a $10,000 Targeted Grant from Eastern Bank, America’s oldest and largest mutual bank. The grant will provide flexible funds to help mothers who are homeless or at risk of homelessness overcome common barriers to employment such as childcare, transportation, and training and testing fees.

Each year, the Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation’s Targeted Grant program supports hundreds of community-based organizations working for progress on a specific issue in Eastern’s New England footprint. In 2018, in celebration of the Bank’s 200th anniversary and to honor its first depositor, Rebecca Sutton, Targeted Grants have been designated to support organizations addressing a range of issues that disproportionately impact women, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, human trafficking, health care, pay equity, and senior management and board representation.

FBMS is among 170 nonprofits each receiving a $10,000 grant. In total, Eastern is granting $1.7 million in Targeted Grants this year to nonprofits in communities from New Hampshire to Cape Cod and throughout the South Shore, North Shore, Metro West, Merrimack Valley and Greater Boston.

“We believe that no child should be homeless, yet we’re seeing hundreds of families enter our emergency shelters every year, and sadly there are many more on the verge of becoming homeless,” John Yazwinski, President & CEO of FBMS, said. “Thanks to this generous grant from Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation, our agency will be able to provide the flexible funding needed to help at-risk mothers overcome barriers to sustainable employment, which is a critical factor in helping prevent families from becoming homeless and in assisting those who are experiencing homelessness to exit shelter and find a permanent home of their own.”

Eastern’s Targeted Grant program this year creates new opportunities and resources for women in areas where assistance is needed the most. The facts are staggering:

· A woman is assaulted every nine seconds in the U.S. and one in three women has been a victim of physical brutality by an intimate partner, making intimate partner violence the single greatest cause of injury to women.

· In Massachusetts, women earn 83 cents for every dollar paid to men. In New Hampshire, they earn 76 cents. African-American women nationwide earn 64 cents for every dollar earned by white men, and Latinas—only 56 cents.

· In the sciences, women represent less than 25% of those employed in computer and mathematical occupations and only 15% in architecture and engineering. For women of color, this gap is even wider. Asian women, African-American women, and Latinas make up less than 10% of working scientists and engineers in the U.S.

· Women receive more graduate degrees and they hold more faculty positions in colleges and universities, and yet, men hold the highest number of tenured university positions.

· Only 32 women run Fortune 500 companies and only two are women of color. Less than 20% of all board seats in Fortune 1,000 companies are held by women.

“We believe in breaking down the barriers that stand between people and prosperity. That’s why Eastern is a strong advocate for the advancement of women,” said Bob Rivers, Chair and CEO of Eastern Bank. “With each Targeted Grant, we aim to enhance the lives of our neighbors and contribute to real progress around the advancement of women in our local communities. On behalf of everyone at Eastern, we congratulate this year’s Targeted Grant recipients and thank them for working to level the playing field.”

For a complete list of the 2018 Targeted Grant recipients, click here.

About Eastern Bank

Founded in 1818 and celebrating its 200th anniversary in 2018, Boston-based Eastern Bank is America’s oldest and largest mutual bank, with $11 billion in assets and over 120 locations serving communities in eastern Massachusetts, southern and coastal New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Eastern provides exceptional access to fairly priced banking, investment and insurance products and services for consumers and businesses of all sizes, and for the eighth consecutive year is the #1 U.S. Small Business Administration lender in New England. Eastern Bank, which includes Eastern Wealth Management and Eastern Insurance, is known for its outspoken advocacy and community support that has exceeded more than $110 million in charitable giving since 1999. The Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation is a leader in corporate philanthropy and serves as the charitable arm of Eastern Bank. An inclusive company, Eastern employs 1,900+ deeply committed professionals who value relationships with their customers, colleagues and communities. Join us for good at www.easternbank.com and follow Eastern Bank on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

About Father Bill’s & MainSpring

Father Bill’s & MainSpring (FBMS) is the leading provider of services to prevent and end homelessness in Southern Massachusetts. The agency, founded in the early 1980s by a group of interfaith and community leaders, helps approximately 6,600 people annually who find themselves homeless, or at risk of homelessness, achieve self-sufficiency. FBMS, a proud partner of the United Way of Greater Plymouth County and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit agency with administrative offices in Quincy and Brockton and program offices throughout Southern Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.helpfbms.org.

Image via Shutterstock